Domain Reporter

The Inspired Home: Practically minded, beautifully inspired

Photo: Michael Nicholson.

When Fiona and Stuart Frith decided to renovate their Castlecrag home last year they had a clear idea of what they wanted: something quick, affordable and sustainable. A pre-fabricated modular system, increasingly popular for those very reasons, seemed practical and ideal.

Balancing this pragmatic approach was the couple’s enthusiasm for something extraordinarily lovely - Renzo Piano’s Aurora Place in Macquarie Street, or rather, the commercial/residential buildings’ much admired terracotta tiles.

They called architect Rohan Little of Oxide Design, who’d developed a pre-fab modular system easily manipulated to accommodate a diverse range of sites and specific client needs.

Brief

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The couple wanted a ‘pool house’: an addition to their “old, boring three-bedroom brick home” that would house a main bedroom, bathroom and walk-in wardrobe. This should be at a distance to the children’s bedrooms and main living areas. If the budget and plan allowed, they also wanted the pool.

Challenges

Very occasionally, neither client nor architect can think of any major obstacle. Struggling, Fiona and Rohan agree on a minor rub - the nonsensical need for a DA for three steps leading to a pool on a project that otherwise fell under a complying development (regarded as building works complying with specific building standards, allowing for routine approval without delay by a private certifier or council).

Solution

The original house was positioned towards the front of a long west-to-east running site, which dropped off steeply to the north: bedrooms at the front, living at the rear and a large garden behind.

Rohan stretched the addition to the east while opening it fully to a timber deck, the pool, northern light, sunlight, ventilation and forest views. He used a glass-sided bridge or walkway to connect but separate old from new, to create a protected courtyard off the kitchen and to introduce light into both spaces.

The addition was kept one-room wide, with all spaces opening off a broad, north-facing corridor.

Fiona and Stuart’s interest in materials, particularly the tiles, and time and cost effective commercial construction methods became a key driver for both design and build processes.

All building components - except the pool deck - were pre-fabricated off site, arriving as easy to assemble components. The roof went on in six hours, the northern façade something similar.

Industrial construction methods were used for the pool, with the same lining used as that in the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, reducing the total cost by two-thirds.

All up, onsite work was completed within three months (that’s including a break for Christmas and New Year).

“We saved about 25-30 per cent in terms of build time, thanks in part to our great builders Shore Build, resulting in labour cost savings of about 20 per cent,” Rohan said.

And the tiles? The pod was clad in them. Rohan utilised a cassette system to house the tiles and floated it off three of the pod’s elevations - beautiful tiles at the front, practical insulation behind. A fine balance from start to finish.